I sometimes share with my students the phenomenon of what I’ve come to call “The Jay Leno Jaywalking Effect.” If you’ve ever watched Jay Leno’s man-on-the-street interview segment called “Jaywalking” you’ve seen the phenomenon. Leno will ask a passerby a question. If the person interviewed does not know the answer, the person just makes one up. But the more interesting thing that happens is when Leno follows up and it becomes apparent that the person immediately comes to believe that the answer he or she just made up is true!
Children in a parochial school religion class were preparing for a final exam. Every year the priest asked only one question, and it was always the same question: List in chronological order the names of the kings of Israel.
Students came to expect this and studied nothing else. As it would happen one year they sat down to take the exam and discovered the question has been changed to: List the major and minor prophets. Most of the students slunk out of the classroom turning in a blank paper, except for one student who was writing furiously.
That student’s paper read: “Far be it for me to judge which of the prophets were of major or minor importance, but it occurred to me that it may be of interest to you to have a chronological list of the kings of Israel.”
Like that clever student I think it’s more helpful to go with what you know than with what you think you know or imagine. For example, observing how people function is more helpful than trying to question their motives. Asking for information is more helpful than guessing what someone thinks. Seeking data and doing the math is more helpful than being fearful about what may be. Understanding how processes actually work is more helpful than working from assumptions about how we believe things “should” work.
